Visiting a family care physicians is a very needed but usually unwanted task. If you are having to go to a family health clinic or after hours urgent care for chilren, then chances are, you have a little one that is sick and that is no fun at all. When my first born was two months old he began to have trouble breathing. He ended up being admitted and we spent two miserable nights wondering what on earth was wrong with our baby. Thankfully, he is fine now but I learned a lot in those two days about how to handle taking your babies to family care physicians clinics or even the emergency room. Here are a few tips for helping parents when visiting your neighborhood health clinic.
- Trust the Doctors
One of the hardest things to do as a parents is to trust your family care physicians. This is not to say you shouldn’t get a second opinion or question things you don’t understand. However, try not to look up your child’s systems on the Internet and diagnose them differently than what the doctor has said. They went to school for a long time to be able to help your child and that’s precisely what they are going to try their best to do. When parents think that the doctor is missing something or wrong because of something they found on a blog on the Internet, it makes it very difficult for the hospital staff to be able to do their job correctly. In order to avoid a misdiagnosis, trust the trained medical professionals. - Limit Visitors
Well meaning friends and family will want to flood the room as soon as word gets out that your child has been taken ill. While they mean no harm, this can actually overstimulate and overwhelm the child which can hinder healing. Part of the reason you want to stay on top of who comes and when is because some people may not be able to hold back their emotions and this can upset not only the child but you as the parent. One person, two tops, should be allowed in the room along with immediate family at one time. If someone starts to get overly emotional or displays negative vibes, gently let them know that your child needs to rest and visiting time is over.
This is probably the most important factor. The problem is that children feed off of their parents emotions. If you, as the parent, begin to panic, worry, stress or even cry or do something else that obviously portrays what you are feeling, your children- the sick one as well as the others, will emulate that emotion. From the moment that you realize your child needs a doctor to when you arrive at family health care clinic to see your family care physicians you need to remain completely in control of your emotions. It is naturally for you to freak out, but refrain from doing so in front of the children. If you think you aren’t going to be able to mask your concern, then bring a friend or family member who can take care of the kids and the details at the clinic so that you can go out of sight to release your emotions. Once you are in control again, return to the children as if nothing is wrong. This will help them to feel safe and secure that even in the face of the unknown, mom or dad can take care of anything.
Having an ill child is a parent’s worst nightmare but we really can make it harder on ourselves sometimes. Following these three simple ideas will help you to stay on track and be able to help you child get well instead of hold them back. Believe it or not, many parents do just that- by hovering over them and talking badly about the doctor in front of the child or things like that, it shows them that something is more wrong than they know and no one is in control. If the child knows that you are in control of the entire situation they will be able to rest in that fact.